I desperately want to love HP as much as the old-timers do. As scary as the shootings and such are, I feel relatively safe here, and I think there's a lot of good in HP. We have a great new art center and beautiful lakefront access. The residents are generally nice, super-well-educated, and highly liberal. But there's this crazy vocal minority among the residents that resists change in any and all forms. And by change, I mean even keeping up with the times. If you know me, you know I'm usually on the side of local, independent stores and environmentally-friendly everything. But some HPers make me look like a stuffy capitalist. Take The Point, for instance. The City wants to shore up the Point by adding some concrete. The aim is not to ruin the natural beauty but rather to protect the natural beauty from being washed away by the lake. Sounds reasonable. Except that HPers felt the need to stop the project because the City was replacing limestone with concrete. Shirts and bumper stickers with "Save the Point" popped up everywhere. While I may sympathize with the protesters, they took things too far, and as a result, nothing has been done 6 years later. So, the Point could just wash away. How's that for saving the Point. I could go on and on about the ridiculous protests in HP (including the one that led to a vacant church 2 blocks from me becoming a crime and rat haven instead of a condo building). The thing that has my blood boiling right now is the misguided attempt to "save" the HP Co-op, the worst grocery store I've ever been in, and unfortunately the only grocery store within a mile of my house. I don't trust myself to be eloquent about the situation, so I'll leave that to the folks at HP Progress and the Chicago Maroon.

I can only assume that HPers desperately need to fight "the man" and are willing to sacrifice common sense to find a cause to champion. If only they could band together to do something useful, like improve retail options and fight crime in the neighborhood.

I can't wait until Thanksgiving! I've been planning the menu for weeks now, and of course I'm excited about the (non-turkey) food and my brother's homebrew beer. And the football in HD. But mostly I'm super-excited to see my parents and my brother and his fiancee and Matthew's parents (although I've seen them recently). Brian and Claire have never seen the condo or met the cats, and now that they're back in Ohio, it's a lot easier for them to come. They will not be bringing their crazy dog, since she would probably terrorize the kitties. :)